Ingenious hacker gets Windows 95 running on his New Nintendo 3DS

By all accounts, 2015 was a landmark year for getting all sorts of devices running operating systems they were never designed to handle. Just last week, a group of hackers got their PlayStation 4 consoles running Linux. 2016, however, may already have 2015 beat.

A smart individual by the name of Shutterbug2000 over at the GBAtemp forums, a community devoted homebrew console software, has managed to install and run Windows 95 on their New Nintendo 3DS. Yes, Nintendo’s diminutive and underpowered portable gaming system is now capable of running an operating system that is more than two decades old.

Currently, there’s not much practical benefit to having the OS installed on the New 3DS — after all, it’s not like Bill Gates and company ever envisioned this combination of hardware and software — but that fact is not getting Shutterbug2000 down. The dream is to eventually make the setup stable enough to run a variety of retro games.

I can’t wait to see what else the year brings in terms of ingenious hardware hacks.